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- GM said that it will invest $6.6 billion in its home state of Michigan between now and 2024 to enhance electric pickup truck manufacturing and construct a new EV battery cell facility.
- The increased investment is part of GM’s aim to expand its North American production capacity to 1 million electrified vehicles by 2025.
- By mid-decade, GM expects to have sold more than 1 million electric vehicles worldwide, surpassing Tesla as the biggest US-based seller of electric vehicles.
DETROIT, MI — GM said that it will invest $6.6 billion in its home state of Michigan between now and 2024 to enhance electric pickup truck manufacturing and construct a new EV battery cell facility.
The increased investment is part of GM’s aim to expand its North American production capacity to 1 million electrified vehicles by 2025, according to the carmaker.
By the middle of the decade, GM expects to have surpassed Tesla as the top seller of electric vehicles in the United States. The expenditures are part of a $35 billion commitment by the corporation to invest in electric vehicles by 2025.
We will have the products, the battery cell capacity, and the vehicle-assembly capacity to be the electric vehicle leader by mid-decade.
said General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra in a statement.
In only three years, GM has a lot of catching up to do. Tesla delivered 936,172 electric vehicles worldwide in 2021, according to the company, which does not provide exact sales figures for the United States. Last year, GM sold fewer than 25,000 electric vehicles in the United States, trailing Tesla and Ford, which delivered 27,140 Mustang Mach-E EVs.
Tesla‘s U.S. manufacturing capacity is expected to expand from around 580,000 units to around 1 million vehicles later this year, according to industry forecaster LMC Automotive, when its second domestic facility in Texas is fully operational.
Electric Trucks
$2.6 billion for a new battery facility in Lansing, Mich., through a joint venture with LG Energy Solution, and $4 billion to transform its Orion Assembly plant in suburban Detroit to make electric vehicles starting in 2024, including forthcoming models of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. GM also said on Tuesday that it will invest an extra $510 million in two Lansing-area vehicle assembly factories to modernize them for non-electric vehicles.
Many of the additional investments have already been publicized, but GM hasn’t said how many vehicles it wants to produce by 2025, nor what items would be produced at Orion. The infusion of cash is projected to result in the creation of 4,000 new employees and the retention of 1,000 present employees.
Michigan will be the recognized hub and leader of innovation in the United States for Electric Vehicle research & development and manufacturing.
said General Motors’ President Mark Reuss during a media briefing.
According to Reuss, Orion Assembly and GM’s Factory Zero factory in Detroit are planned to produce the majority of the 1 million electric vehicles in North America. By the middle of the decade, Orion expects to be able to produce 360,000 vehicles per year, while Factory Zero aims for 270,000. GM is also modernizing factories in Tennessee, Canada, and Mexico to produce electric vehicles.
By 2030, GM expects to transition half of its North American assembly capacity to EV production, five years ahead of a target of offering only light-duty electric vehicles by 2035.
Battery Factory
The new LG battery plant, which will cover 2.8 million square feet, is anticipated to open in late 2024. It’s GM’s third such factory in the United States. A battery facility in Lordstown, Ohio, is set to open later this year, with another in Tennessee set to open in 2023. GM is anticipated to announce at least one additional factory in the near future. Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture with LG, is responsible for the construction of the facilities.
The manufacture of battery cells is a critical component of the electric car supply chain. Apart from Tesla, which has gigantic Gigafactory battery operations in Nevada, China, and Germany, automakers have generally outsourced battery manufacture to third-party vendors. Automakers are hurrying to form partnerships with suppliers in order to get more control over battery cell production and the raw materials required for batteries.
GM has given its next-generation batteries and electric car platform and technology the moniker Ultium. On a full charge, the unique cells are expected to have a range of up to 450 miles or more, with a 0-60 mph acceleration time of three seconds. The cells are distinctive in that they are housed in pouches rather than the cylinders that are commonly utilized nowadays.
According to the Associated Press, Michigan‘s economic development board authorized $824 million in incentives and support for GM’s investment on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden praised his administration’s economic plan for “helping power a historic American manufacturing revival” in response to GM’s investment statement on Tuesday.
From day one, my administration has been laser focused on making sure that America leads the manufacturing future of electric vehicles.
President Joe Biden statement.
This statement is the latest in a series of over $100 billion investments in American car production over the last year to produce electric vehicles and batteries.
Biden has been a supporter of electric vehicles and the retention of home manufacturing in their supply chains. In his Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, he proposed $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations. He’s also pushing for automakers’ EVs to account for 50% of all new car sales in the United States by 2030.
